Ange

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Synaxe des Saints Anges

Le mot ange signifie "messager" et ce mot exprime la nature du service angélique envers l'humanité. Les anges sont organisés en différents ordres, ou Chœurs angéliques. La plus inlfuente de ces classification est celle révélée par le saint Denys l'Aréopagite dans son livre La Hiérarchie Céleste.

Dans cet oeuvre, cet auteur interprète plusieurs passages du Nouveau testament, spécifiquement l'Épître aux Éphésiens 6:12 et l'Épître aux colossiens 1:16, pour construire le schéma des trois Hiérarchies, Sphères ou Triades d'anges, chaque Hiérarchie contenant trois Ordres ou Choeurs. dans l'ordre décroissant de puissance, ce sont :

• Première Hiérarchie:
  • Séraphins
  • Chérubins
  • Trônes
• Deuxième Hiérarchie:
  • Puissances
  • Dominations
  • Principautés
• Troisième Hiérarchie:
  • Vertus
  • Archanges
  • Anges

Try comparing this model of the Triune God in the Immaterial, Incorporeal and Invisible World with the one existing in our corporeal, material and visible World:

• Espace:
  • Longueur
  • Largeur
  • Hauteur ou Profondeur
• Temps:
  • Passé
  • Présent
  • Future
• Matière:
  • Solides
  • Liquides
  • Gaz

However, one should be a bit cautious about taking pseudo-Dionysius' model too concretely, as he is the only source we have for such a classification system. The author himself was a fairly early advocate of apophatic theology, which insists on only describing God in the negative. Still, many have accused the writer of wavering somewhere in between Orthodoxy and Neoplatonism, a pagan Greek philosophical system; such critics say that the three groupings of three in the angelic hierarchy derive from Neoplatonism:

The Hellenic concept of the world as "order" and "hierarchy," the strict Platonic division between the "intelligible"

and "sensible" worlds, and the Neoplatonic grouping of beings into "triads" reappear in the famous writings of a

mysterious early-sixth-century writer who wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite.Modèle:Ref

Furthermore, the comparison of the celestial with the earthly breaks down if one takes into account modern science, which tells us of a fourth category of matter and a very debatable number of dimensions (see w:String Theory if interested). All said and done, this is not to entirely discredit pseudo-Dionysius, who has been much esteemed by numerous Church Fathers and theologians up to the present day.

Sources

Orthodox Life, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Nov.-Dec., 1977), pp. 39-47.

• Modèle:NoteFrom Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes by Fr. John Meyendorff. New York: Fordham University Press, 1974, p. 27. ISBN 0-8232-0967-9.

Liens Externes

• The Church's Teaching Concerning Angels
• The Celestial Hierarchy by St. Dionysius the Areopagite
• The Angels by H.H. Pope Shenouda III (Format: PDF)